Kingston's Andrew Garland a champion of American music

Baritone Andrew Garland has three rehearsals today – for three different concerts this weekend. On top of that, he started the week in New York City with his debut at Avery Fisher Hall in Lincoln Center. “This is going to be the craziest week of my life,” said Garland, 36, of Kingston. “It’s craz...

Baritone Andrew Garland has three rehearsals today – for three different concerts this weekend. On top of that, he started the week in New York City with his debut at Avery Fisher Hall in Lincoln Center.

“This is going to be the craziest week of my life,” said Garland, 36, of Kingston. “It’s crazy because I’m doing these concerts back to back and there are two world premiers, with new music I’ve had to learn.”

But he’s certainly not complaining; in fact, he’s grateful for the opportunities. On Memorial Day in New York City, he sang the world premier of a requiem by Mark Hayes. He will sing Mozart’s Mass in C Minor and a world premier of a commissioned work by Peter Child with Chorus Pro Musica tomorrow at Jordan Hall, and he will sing Schubert’s Mass in G and a world premier of work by Greg Bullen with Choro Allegro Sunday at Church of the Covenant in Boston.

But Garland, who has won numerous national and international competitions, is particularly invested in the concert Saturday where he will sing songs that reflect the American experience. In “Simple Gifts: An American Musical Landscape,” he will sing Aaron Copeland’s “Old American Songs,” as well as “When the Saints Go Marching In,” “Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child,” and other American folk tunes set to contemporary arrangements by Steven Mark Kohn. He will perform with the Boston Saengerfest Men’s Chorus and a chamber orchestra at First Baptist Church in Newton.

“This style depicts the wide open spaces of the plains and the country dances that were American, not primarily European influenced,” said Garland whose new CD “American Portraits” features art songs from contemporary American composers. “I like a lot of American music, and I feel like these songs play to my strengths and fit my voice. I’ve done a lot of work to hone a style of diction that sounds more colloquial for works by American composers.”

To a degree, Garland is a pioneer in promoting American music unfamiliar to most of the public. For his Carnegie Hall debut in 2008, concert organizers wanted him to substitute some of his selections with better known ones. The singer Marilyn Horne told the organizers to trust Garland, and in fact, the concert sold out and earned favorable reviews.

“My biggest goal is for far more singers to perform the folk songs arranged by Stephen Mark Kohn,” Garland said. “They’re folk melodies with a pop influence and a sophisticated craft to them. They ought to be recognized.”

Garland said he never may have discovered his vocal talent if Peter Glass, a Silver Lake High chorus director, hadn’t enticed him to chorus with the offer to be the pianist accompanist. (Garland also figured he would get more chances to be with Corinne Lesieur, whom he was dating and later married.) When Garland arrived, Glass told him the piano wasn’t needed that day. So Garland – who also played in the school’s jazz, concert and marching bands – joined the singers, and discovered that “I loved it from the first moment.”

Page 2 of 2 - At University of Massachusetts, he intended to study music education and vowed not to major in vocal performance. Again, a chorus director convinced him to audition and take voice lessons, and he added a major in vocal performance. After graduation he earned a master’s degree at Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and apprenticed with two opera companies in San Francisco and Seattle.

Even now, Garland said he continues to take voice lessons and receive coaching, since baritone voices typically continue to change and mature through the mid-30s. As he grows as a musician, he also does a better job balancing his career and family life, he said.

“A few years ago, if I had this crazy schedule coming up, I would be worrying about the music and not be able to devote attention to my family,” said Garland, who has daughters ages 7 and 4. “But I’ve learned to say, ‘I’m done practicing for the day and I’m going to be with my family and not think about the music.”

Though Garland travels throughout the country, he makes time to do benefit concerts for the Kingston Public Library and to give a class at Silver Lake High School. And he embraces the unpredictability of his career.

“What’s exciting is that there is no typical schedule for me,” he said. “Last year, I did a ton of concerts and only one staged opera, and this year I started off with three operas back to back.”

He’s looking forward to singing this summer with the Cincinnati Opera and with Boston Lyric Opera and the Boston Landmarks Orchestra at the Hatch Shell. But for now, he is focused on this weekend, particularly the concert of American music.

“I know I can guarantee that the audience will love these songs,” Garland said. “I’ve done them so many times in so many different places. I feel like they’re really the next generation of American song.”